Perfect Two
by cuz-CM's-awesome
Summary: This is a series of one shots inspired by the song Perfect Two by Auburn. All telling the story of Penelope and Aaron's life together.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds and I'm not making any profit off this story. **

**Summary: This is a series of one shots inspired by the song Perfect Two by Auburn. All telling the story of Penelope and Aaron's life together. **

**Please R&R **

**Enjoy! **

…

Aaron came up behind Penelope as he heard her sigh. "Everything alright?" he asked, acting like he hadn't heard her conversation with Lynch. Penelope looked to her feet and Aaron hated the look of sadness that crossed her face. He could tell that she was stressed out and overtired, he never wanted her to feel like that. Penelope was their light, the spark that kept them closely knit and made them smile even on their worst days; she meant everything to their team and even more to him.

"Do you ever have one of those days where you just want to unplug from everything, literally?" Penelope asked sounding defeated.

Aaron studied her for a moment and then quickly came to a decision. "Okay," he said as the elevator dinged open and they stepped on together "I'm going to need you to disable all your electronic devices."

She turned to him with a confused look.

"You're coming home with me tonight," he explained, the doors closing "and we don't need any distractions. Your phone, your tablet, your computer and all your other technological devices…are distractions."

"What?" Penelope asked, gaping at him "I don't understand…what about Jack?"

"You need a stress free night and I'm going to give you one. Jack's at an overnight trip for school, so you don't need to worry about upsetting any plans I would have had."

Penelope shook her head "I don't know…are you sure?"

"Completely," Aaron said and when she still looked unconvinced he placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Trust me Penelope."

She bit her lip but nodded, it was seldom that he called her by her first name but she liked the way he said it and she'd honestly enjoy spending a night with him. "Okay Sir," she agreed.

"None of that," Aaron said "There are only two rules for tonight and the first one is no titles, no last names. Tonight it's just Penelope and Aaron. Alright?"

"Yes…Aaron," she said as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened, they walked out into the parking garage, "what's the other rule?"

He grinned at her widely and fished his keys out of his pocket to unlock his car "You have to have fun."

Penelope couldn't help the smile that appeared on her face. It was such a silly rule and she never would have thought Aaron would say it to her but she was still glad he did. As she got into the passenger's side of his car she decided that going with him really was the best way to keep her thoughts off Kevin and his new girlfriend. How could she possibly be thinking about him when she had a wonderful man like Aaron by her side?

As they drove out of the parking garage and onto the street Penelope frowned "Uh, this isn't the way to your house?" She was looking out her window, watching the houses pass by as they went in the opposite direction to Aaron's house.

Aaron nodded "We have just one stop before heading there," he explained but wouldn't tell Penelope any more about where they were going.

She just had to sit back and wait.

…

They pulled up to a baseball field and Penelope's brows rose "This is our quick stop?"

Aaron turned to her "I didn't say anything about it being quick."

"What…?" Penelope began but Aaron shook his head.

"Just come on," he said with a smile that had Penelope's heart quickening its pace where she sat "I swear you're going to enjoy this."

"Okay," Penelope found herself agreeing and opening her door. Aaron got out of his side and hurried to meet her on the other side. He held out his arm to her and she took it without a second thought.

He led her to a ticket booth near the batting cages. The place looked relatively popular with a few couples and one group of friends hanging out by the cages.

He took out his wallet and said "Two for…I think an hour should be enough."

"Hotch," Penelope said forgetting about rule number one "An hour, really? I'm not even good at baseball, you don't need to…"

Aaron gave her a stern look "Already breaking rule one I see, perhaps there should be a punishment if that rule is broken," Penelope blushed and shook her head, Aaron chuckled "okay I'll let it go since it's your first offense, and believe me once you get in there, you're going to want at least an hour."

Penelope highly doubted that but she didn't argue again. She let Aaron pay and then thanked the guy behind the cash as he handed her a bat.

"You're in Cage Five," he said to Aaron.

Once Aaron had picked up his own bat they headed there. Aaron walked into the cage and Penelope followed him. He closed the door once she was in and told her to stand off to the left. "Now the balls are going to be coming really fast so you'll always want to be mindful of where you're standing. Then just line up your position…" Aaron moved to the middle and bent his knees; he took a practice swing and then held his bat up again. "Make sure you keep your eye on the ball, and swing."

Penelope heard the loud thwack of the ball hitting Aaron's bat and then flying through the air towards the back of the cage where it hit the mesh wiring.

"Wow…" Penelope said staring at him with disbelief "You're really good at this…why didn't you join the FBI's team when Derek needed players."

"I didn't have the time. Most of my free time I spend with Jack and besides I thought it would be good for Reid to get out there."

Penelope smiled "You were right as usual then."

Aaron grinned back "I know I'll be right about this too. Now grab your bat and get over here."

Penelope did what he asked with a sigh "I'm really not good at this."

"Don't think about that right now, just focus on the ball."

Penelope did as he asked. She lined herself up and watched the ball as it came flying towards her, she swung…and missed. "I told you," she whined looking back at Aaron.

"Just keep trying," he said.

She shook her head but did as he told her; on her sixth try she actually made contact with the ball. It flew a few feet and then thumped to the ground.

Her face brightened with a huge smile "I did it!" she called ecstatically to Aaron "I actually hit it!"

Aaron watched her with a smile "Yes you did, great job, now do it again."

Penelope concentrated and ended up hitting the next three. She was practically bouncing gleefully as the third one went the farthest. "This is actually quite…exhilarating, who would have guessed?" She turned back to Aaron "Uh do you want to go again?"

"No, it's okay, you're just getting into it and I don't want to ruin you're streak,"

Penelope nodded, secretly happy that she didn't have to step away just yet. She really got into it after that, her mind closing out everything that was around her other than the ball.

At one point she started picturing the ball as Kevin's head and it really felt good to hit it. She thought about her last few months and how she'd been desperately trying to get back together with him. Now she didn't know why she had bothered. He wasn't worth her attention, hell he had brought a date to JJ's wedding and had blown her off the other night for another girl he was stringing along.

Then the balls stopped and Penelope turned to look at Aaron, not understanding.

"We used our hour up," he explained.

"What?" Penelope asked, she couldn't believe that an hour had passed already. It couldn't be but Aaron's face told her that it was. She felt embarrassed "I'm so sorry Aaron! I totally tuned you out and used up all our time. You only got to hit one b…"

"Penelope, don't worry about it. This night was for you to unwind. I've been here countless times so I'm not upset, I'm just glad you had a good time."

"I really did," Penelope murmured "thank you so much."

"Anytime, now how about we return our bats and then go get some ice bream before we head back to my place?"

Penelope grinned, she had worked up an appetite not to mention a sweat during her workout, and she was more than happy to get ice cream.

They returned the bats, got in the car and headed to a Dairy Queen that Penelope had seen on their way there. She got an Oreo Blizzard while Aaron got a Strawberry shake. She gave him a weird look when he ordered, she hadn't expected that to be what he wanted but he shrugged her off "What, I like strawberry."

She laughed and they took their ice cream outside to eat at one of the picnic tables sitting there. It was a warm August evening and the perfect weather for ice cream.

Penelope ate a spoonful of her blizzard and almost moaned at the taste. She closed her eyes for a second and then licked her spoon clean. When she opened her eyes, Aaron was staring at her intensely. He looked away quickly like he had been caught doing something wrong and a bit of color spread across his cheeks.

Penelope's mind zeroed in on what that could mean and her thoughts went every which as she thought about the possibilities.

Before the silence could become awkward she pointed her spoon to his shake "So Strawberry eh? I never pictured you as the strawberry kind of guy. Maybe chocolate or coffee…"

Aaron laughed "I don't know, I just like Strawberry, I always have."

"Huh, strawberry just isn't my thing, I much rather prefer chocolate or fudge or peanut butter, mhmm," she said taking a bite of her chocolaty goodness.

"You can't tell me you don't like strawberries, haven't you been telling Morgan for years that you'd like him to feed you strawberries?" Aaron asked then blushed as he realized what he had said, it had honestly slipped out.

Penelope blushed too then quickly found a different subject.

When they were done with their ice cream they stood up and headed to the car. They were still talking and laughing pleasantly when Aaron stopped her before she could reach her door. "You have a bit of chocolate on your face."

Penelope blushed, wiping at her mouth.

He shook his head when she didn't get it "Here," he said and then his fingers were gently brushing across her chin. Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at him, her heartbeat speeding up.

He too seemed to stare down at her more passionately than before. Something had shifted. He removed his hand but instead leaned down to kiss her.

She gasped into the kiss but wholeheartedly responded once she had gotten over her shock.

He pulled away much too soon for her liking "Penelope," he whispered "you're beautiful and you're much too good for a man like Kevin Lynch."

Penelope didn't say anything; she just leaned up to kiss him again.

Penelope wouldn't have believed it if someone had told her earlier that day that she would be kissing her boss later that night. It had started out as one friend simply helping another but had turned into so much more. Penelope would always look back on that night with fondness.

Their first date that had never been planned as one and the starting of a brand new relationship between them.


End file.
